UK: Supreme Court rules that heterosexual couples can enter into a civil partnership
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BBC: A heterosexual couple have won their legal bid for the right to have a civil partnership instead of a marriage.
The couple wanted that the rights of civil partnerships given to same-sex couples would be applied to their relationship. In 2016 the couple lost a legal bid to be allowed to enter a civil partnership.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favour of Rebecca Steinfeld, 37, and Charles Keidan, 41, from London.
The court said the Civil Partnership Act 2004 – which only applies to same-sex couples – is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Ms Steinfeld said she hoped the government does the “right thing” and extends civil partnerships to all.
“We are feeling elated,” she told the BBC outside court. “But at the same time we are feeling frustrated the government has wasted taxpayers’ money in fighting what the judges’ have called a blatant inequality.”
In a civil partnership, a couple is entitled to the same legal treatment in terms of inheritance, tax, pensions and next-of-kin arrangements as marriage.
The couple, who met in 2010 and have two children, said the “legacy of marriage” which “treated women as property for centuries” was not an option for them.
“We want to raise our children as equal partners and feel that a civil partnership – a modern, symmetrical institution – sets the best example for them,” they explained.
